An attorney for a former Schaumburg police officer convicted of running an illegal drug ring is accusing police and prosecutors of misconduct for falsifying and not disclosing evidence in the case.

In addition, the attorney for ex-cop Terrance O’Brien wants to question under oath prosecutors, police and laboratory analysts.

O’Brien is seeking to have his convictions overturned and charges against him dismissed. His plea of guilty to the crimes, attorney Paul DeLuca argues in a court petition, was not freely and knowingly made, because he did not know all the evidence in the case.

DuPage County prosecutors and Carol Stream police declined to respond directly to the accusations to the Tribune, but the state’s attorney’s office argued in court documents that DeLuca has no right in this case to depose law enforcement officials, which would be unusual but not unprecedented.

The controversy stems from the arrest in 2013 of O’Brien, Matthew Hudak and John Cichy, who were Schaumburg police officers at the time. They were accused of stealing from drug dealers, then selling drugs through another dealer. O’Brien and Hudak both pleaded guilty in 2014. O’Brien was sentenced to 24 years, Hudak to 26.

But Cichy held out, and on the day he was scheduled to go to trial this year, prosecutors made the stunning announcement that they were dropping all charges against him. Assistant State’s Attorney Timothy Diamond said the key undercover informant in the case, Michael Mathieu-Duran, had been accused of committing two previously undisclosed crimes.

Carol Stream police had taken reports that Mathieu-Duran had stolen an exercise bicycle from the health club where he worked and that he had fraudulently charged customers’ credit cards to his own account. Prosecutors previously had acknowledged that Mathieu-Duran had been dealing drugs, but he was never charged with the alleged thefts.

Attorneys for O’Brien and Hudak argued they should have their cases thrown out on the same basis as Cichy’s. But Judge Liam Brennan ruled against Hudak, calling his request “frivolous and patently without merit.”

Brennan is allowing O’Brien to challenge his sentence, based on the argument that it was five years too long because time for one of the crimes should be served at the same time as the others.

DeLuca also argues that former Assistant State’s Attorney Audriana Anderson, who led the prosecution, and current Downers Grove Police Department Deputy Chief James McGreal falsely stated before the grand jury and in seeking an arrest warrant that all three officers had entered a storage locker to steal $20,000 planted there by undercover investigators. Surveillance video shows that only two men, matching the appearance of Hudak and Cichy, entered the locker, DeLuca argued.

McGreal, a sergeant at the time, was part of a multiagency task force that investigated the Schaumburg case. He and Anderson declined to comment for this story.

In addition, DeLuca wrote, prosecutors or police omitted portions of telephone conversations between Hudak and the informant that would have supported the officers’ innocence.

“This was part of a continued series of prosecutorial misconduct and police misconduct,” DeLuca wrote.

Prosecutors argued in court papers that DeLuca’s argument had “no merit.” They cited Illinois Supreme Court rulings in other cases that limited discovery of new evidence to prevent a “fishing expedition.”

“Whatever right defendant had to such material was waived by defendant by virtue of his guilty plea,” the prosecutors wrote.

Veteran defense attorney Stephen Komie, who has no connection to the Schaumburg case, said there is precedent for questioning prosecutors under oath. He cited the case of Jon Burge, the former Chicago police commander accused of repeatedly torturing suspects.

“It’s totally within the judge’s authority,” Komie said. “One thing that hounds prosecutors at all times is (the duty) to share (evidence).”

Police have the same responsibility, Komie said.

Text messages in the court file show an unidentified prosecutor questioning Carol Stream police about the allegations of theft against Mathieu-Duran, the informant in the case.

The prosecutor asked, “Did we get anything about this wire fraud case before? I can’t find anything about it in the discovery or my email.”

The officer answered that “Audrey,” apparently referring to lead prosecutor Anderson, knew about both the theft allegations against Mathieu-Duran.

“WTH?” the prosecutor asked. “This isn’t good.”

The officer indicated that he, rather than Anderson, declined to charge Duran in the credit card case, noting “it wasn’t a solid case.”

Recently, the DuPage state’s attorney’s office has had a turnover of much of its leadership. First Assistant Joseph Ruggiero left for the Illinois Prisoner Review Board. Diamond retired as chief of the criminal bureau, and Mike Pawl resigned as deputy chief of the felony bureau. Paul Darrah, spokesman for the office, said the departures had nothing to do with the Schaumburg police case.